Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray. O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord.

Candy

Renee

Rosy

Molly

Emily

Shannon

moi

Grace

Mrs. N

Matthew Stuckey

Prayer of Those Suffering Miscarriage

My Lord, the baby is dead!
Why, my Lord—dare I ask why? It will not hear the whisper of the wind or see the beauty of its parents’ face—it will not see the beauty of Your creation or the flame of a sunrise. Why, my Lord?

“Why, My child—do you ask ‘why’? Well, I will tell you why.
You see, the child lives. Instead of the wind he hears the sound of angels singing before My throne.
Instead of the beauty that passes he sees everlasting Beauty—he sees My face.
He was created and lived a short time so the image of his parents imprinted on his face may stand before Me as their personal intercessor.
He knows secrets of heaven unknown to men on earth. He laughs with a special joy that only the innocent possess.

My ways are not the ways of man. I create for My Kingdom and each creature fills a place in that Kingdom that could not be filled by another.
He was created for My joy and his parents’ merits. He has never seen pain or sin. He has never felt hunger or pain. I breathed a soul into a seed, made it grow and called it forth.”

I am humbled before you, my Lord, for questioning Your wisdom, goodness, and love. I speak as a fool—forgive me. I acknowledge Your sovereign rights over life and death. I thank You for the life that began for so short a time to enjoy so long an Eternity. -- Mother M. Angelica

Now that I'm old and can read whatever I want, I've started reading "the Classics". (The Classics being entertaining American Fiction, although I started Crime and Punishment and bought The Prince for my next book).

I've been through The Jungle (never eating hot dogs again), traipsed through My Antonia, (I have a soft spot for Czech immigrants, apparently) and am currently settled with Country of the Tall Pines. I seem to be going back in time.

There are a few books that I wasn't interested in actually reading, but are referred to so often, and have entered our phraseology, that I felt I needed to be more familiar with them. So I rented Catch-22 from Blockbuster online, for free, figuring it would save me the time and money of reading the book.

Totally backfired. The film is a little artsy, but I think that comes more the novel's structure than the director. But... Oh. My. Word. The dialogue. The dialogue! I watch movies with the closed captioning on, because I am writing a movie and it helps me connect words on the page with what it looks like on screen. I'm only halfway through the movie, but I'm going to ditch it and get the book. I don't want to spoil the plot points (since the movie starts with the demise of main character, I already know how it ends).

Wikipedia sums up the theme nicely:

Heller suggests that rules left unchecked will take on a life of their own, forming a bureaucracy in which important matters (e.g., those affecting life and death) are trivialized and trivial matters (eg clerical errors) assume enormous importance. He concludes that the only way to survive such an insane system is to be insane oneself.

This seems particularly relevant after reading the new Parent Handbook for Mr. R's school. I was bemused miffed when I read the disciplinary actions section. There are three levels of offenses. Level 3 is criminal activity.

That's right! Being late to class is on the same plane as cheating on your exams.

Level 2 includes:Use of an intoxicant, vandalism, stealing, possession of unauthorized substances, and the ultimate sin - refusal to obey school personnel.

Not minding your teacher in the same category as drinking and stealing.

He is in a special self-contained ED classroom. He has his own personal Catch-22 there...

The classroom is set up to be a particular environment for his problems. There are two teachers, and five students, all boys. The schedule is fairly rigid and includes a precise and consistent behavior modification program. Mr. R did so well here that he almost disqualified himself from remaining in the classroom! "Luckily" he had one major meltdown so he still qualifies... but it is frustrating! The reason he is in the self-contained class is because he has problems in regular classes. The self contained class is specifically designed to eliminate the triggers of behaviors and support learning. But if he doesn't misbehave, and actually learns, he is put back into a regular class with no accomodations - until he requalifies for the self-contained class by failing again.